The invention relates generally to the field of managing storage in a networked storage environment and, in particular, relates to the systems and methods for provisioning storage and paths, including devices in the path, to storage in storage networks.
Traditional computer storage architectures consist of dedicated storage devices connected to corresponding computer servers, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 1. However, the direct attachment of storage to corresponding servers does not support sharing of the storage infrastructure by multiple servers. Thus, this architecture has major limitations, such as, for example, capacity and performance constraints, difficulty of management, reduced availability, and susceptibility to disasters.
The Storage Area Network (commonly known as “SAN”) is a relatively new storage architecture that provides any-to-any connectivity between servers and storage at high (e.g., gigabit) speeds, allowing an enterprise to scale and manage its storage infrastructure independently of its server resources. For purposes of this invention, SAN is defined to include a storage network connecting a distributed and heterogeneous collection of compute servers, storage infrastructure, and special purpose, storage-service appliances. FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional SAN architecture 200 having computer servers 202, a switching network 204 and a storage infrastructure 206. Switching network 204 provides bi-directional coupling between servers 202 and storage infrastructure 206. Thus, SAN architecture 200 provides “any to any” connectivity between any servers 202 and a device of storage infrastructure 206, allowing heterogeneous collections of servers to share the same storage infrastructure. Information technology (IT) managers are implementing SAN technology to increase performance, consolidate and share storage resources, intermix best of class storage components, manage their storage in a centralized manner, and gain the availability features. In particular, the SAN architecture supports powerful new data management concepts in support of backup, replication, and availability. For example, such “management” typically includes some or all of discovery, monitoring, topology creation, naming, persistence, data volume creation, switch security, data volume security, and authentication. A data volume is a single logical unit exported by a storage subsystem to a computer server. It may consist of many physical discs, portions of discs, or a data tape, but looks like one contiguous space to a server.
Unfortunately, conventional SAN management tools are typically server-based and have little or no inherent knowledge of the SAN special-purpose hardware and services such as replication services, snapshot engines, and virtualizers or SAN appliances. Conventional tools do not relate SAN storage and switch devices to applications and lines of business, and they don't automate the many processes required to allocate storage to applications. As a result, the actions required to be taken by IT management to put SAN data management concepts into practice are very complex, and are becoming even more so as SAN infrastructures become more complex.
“Today, most enterprises create data paths using a collection of device specific tools while referring to spreadsheets for SAN device information. Some enterprises have written scripts to address the complexity of storage provisioning in a SAN. These scripts have to be modified whenever new equipment is added to the SAN and executed by hand. In many cases they have selected one security mechanism rather than using all of the mechanisms to reduce complexity. In some cases, corporate databases have been created to maintain the settings of all the devices in the SAN although many organizations still use paper documents to keep track of current settings.”
The conventional server-based SAN management tools typically provide only device-specific task management capability. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the steps a SAN administrator would have to execute in order to provide a SAN attached server storage access using current un-automated, device-based SAN management tools.
At step 251, the SAN administrator physically verifies that the server is connected to the disc storage. At step 252, the SAN administrator finds a data volume of sufficient size. At step 253, the SAN administrator sets mapping of the selected data volume. At step 254, the SAN administrator selects one or more physical connections from the server to the storage subsystem with the data volume. At step 255, the SAN administrator verifies that the physical connection is good. At step 256, the SAN administrator configures the switch by setting security. Step 255 and 256 are repeated by the SAN administrator for every switch used. Finally, at step 258, the SAN administrator configures the host bus adaptor (HBAs), within the servers.
Thus, as can be seen from the example of FIG. 3, the SAN administrator that administers a conventional SAN has a lot of storage infrastructure knowledge and uses many different tools in order to effectively manage the SAN.